Has anyone got experience with Catek bindings?

[chillaxin]

Just a quick question regarding Catek bindings. I am thinking about buying the olympic step-in ones. Does anyone know how these bindings compare to the bomber step-ins? I just love the way Catek uses a kingpin so you are able to change bindings realy quickly. I am just wondering if 1 screw is able to keep the binding to the plate.

Chillaxin

[nils]

Well we've never seen a catek, but i don't think they would release and equip world cup riders with a plate that wouldn't hold to the binding
They look great from what we see on the pics and feedbacks... There are many cant/lift settings that are useless for EC because its better to ride flat. I'd say the main difference between the catek and bomber, besides the bail attachment that is very nice on the TD comes from the surface of the disc on the board... Bomber disc is smaller, and i guess it makes the board bend a bit more naturally than that of the catek... Phiokka's also have the same disc size than cateks and we are going to test them... Might feel no difference anyway...

The olympic is very beautiful piece of craftmanship!
Nils

[pokkis]

Catek's: are lighter than any other prper bindings currently. They are very solid and great bindings. But in reality you can not reliable use only king pin when switching board. But other hand they are more flexible on adjustment side than anything existing currently. Also they are as bomb proof as Bombers. Only draw back on both bindings currently is aluminun step-in piece for rear foot, it will wear out in few season
But TD2 is just coming out so ??

[Hans]

I have tried the cateks short plates olympic step in on a Virus Psycho for one week this year. The Psycho was too dangerous for me on the piste (too fast and too stiff for me, it scared the hell out of me and other piste-users when I did some serious pistes (black and red), I couldn't brake at short notice when I met some other piste-users like skiing people, very hard to get some short turns out of the board, you need space). So I sold my Psycho and bought a SWOARD 168H, you can do everything with this board, short and long turns. I only tried this board on a indoor snowhall for two houres with the Cateks, so it's hard to give an good opinion how these bindings behave on a SWOARD. I liked them till so far, very direct feedback, the board ride like a train on rails with these bindings, even the snowhall isn't that steep. The bindings are rock solid. They are light too. The bindings are a piece of art, very good craftmanship. The Cateks have a rubber damper beneath the bindings so you won't have the chance to damage your board directly like the bombers can sometimes do. The bombers aluminium is directly contact your board. The new bombers will not?????? The only disadvantage of the Catek binding can be that you have to set the bindings in 3 degrees and so on. So from 54 to 51 to 48 degrees and so on. The bombers don't have this disadvantage. I weigh 82 kgs so I bought the short plates so that the bindings will bend a little bit under my weight and therefore some forgiving. If you buy the long plates for guys of 82 kgs and more and large feet you will have a very stiff plate. Within a few days Fin will launch the new BOLsite (bomberonline) and check the new TD2. For now I will stick to my Cateks and try them on the SWOARD. I will post some experiences when I've tried it (January and February I go to Les 2 Alpes for three days, nice blue carvepistes and a week for Haus, near Schladming at Austria). If you like the Cateks or the Bombers, I think it doesn't matter, they are both very good. If you want to use the bindings for other (race)boards too, I say I go for the Cateks because it's the binding with more settingpossibilities then the bombers. With bombers you will have to buy different kinds of liftdisks like 0, 3 and 6 degree disks, so for the same possibilties like the Cateks you have to pay more. If they are good for riding a Swoard, it depends on your ridingstyle. Me, I have an agressive ridingstyle and want some serious stiffness but not the utmost. The bombers have the advantage of three different types of dampers. I have seen a photo on this forum of a Swoard, I think it was the board of Nils with bombers and red bumpers (the hardest I thought). For more experiences with Bombers try the SWOARDteam and look at bomberonline.com, forum and reviews and freecarve.com. And the question of you about the pin, the center pin and the four other pins will hold the binding to the disk which is also tight down to your board with four screws. So you use 9 pins/screws to tighten this binding to your board.

Greetings, Hans.

[chillaxin]

Hi Hans,

Many thanks for the extended answer

I guess you have tried the swoard on SnowWorld in Zoetermeer? Can you go flat indoor with the swoard or is it just like normal (snowworld is not that wide)....?

Greets,

Chillaxin

[Mphdemon]

They are great, I don't have the step in ones but mine work great, I haven't had any problems yet, and when I finally get enough money to get a SWOARD of my own Cateks are what's goin on it. All stainless steal and aluminium. they're the first bindings that have lasted more than a season for me. I have already broken 4 pairs of Plastic bindings.

[nils]

Actually we use ours (jacques and I) with yellow/soft bumpers... Might have been Rob's swoard you saw with the red bumpers...!

Nils

[Hans]

I guess you have tried the swoard on SnowWorld in Zoetermeer? Can you go flat indoor with the swoard or is it just like normal (snowworld is not that wide)....?

Well,
They made a 3th piste last year, I laid just two almost fully frontside turns in the snow there, you have to use some strength with the SWOARD to make a middle short turn, you can't make a fully backside and frontside after each other.

Cheers, Hans.

[Hans]

Nils wrote this post: viewtopic.php?t=341
It contains this image:


Hi, Nils
This pictures I saw the red bumpers under the Bombers TD, your topic about that great tool, I use now too.

Greetings, Hans.

[nils]

They are yellow but the surrounding color makes them look red
Believe me !! I've never even mounted the red on my board yet!

As for the tooltonic, we will have news regarding that fantastic tool very soon!

Nils